It operates in over 30 countries and serves over 33 million customers.[5] Its chief executive officer (Vorstandsvorsitzender) is Dr. Johannes Teyssen.[6]

E.ON was created in 2000 through the merger of VEBA and VIAG. In 2016, it separated its conventional power generation and energy trading operations into a new company, Uniper, while retaining retail, distribution and nuclear operations.[7] E.ON sold its stake in Uniper through a stock market listing[8] and sold the remaining stock to the Finnish utility Fortum. In March 2018, it was announced that E.ON will acquire renewable energy utility Innogy through a complex €43 billion asset swap deal between E.ON, Innogy and RWE.[9][10]

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E.ON came into existence in 2000 through the merger of energy companies VEBA and VIAG (Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG; United Industrial Enterprises Corporation). In the United Kingdom, Powergen was acquired by E.ON in January 2002.[11] In 2003 E.ON entered the gas market through the acquisition of Ruhrgas (later: E.ON Ruhrgas). E.ON Ruhrgas was represented in more than 20 countries in Europe.

E.ON attempted to acquire Endesa in 2006, however this acquisition was overtaken by a joint bid from Italian utility Enel in conjunction with Spanish company Acciona. E.ON acquired about €10 billion of assets that the enlarged Enel was required to divest under EU competition rulings.[13]

In July 2009, the European Commission fined GDF Suez and E.ON €553 million each over arrangements on the MEGAL pipeline.[14][15] It was the second biggest fines imposed by the European Commission and first one on the energy sector.[14][16] In 1975, Ruhrgas and Gaz de France concluded a deal according to which they agreed not to sell gas in each other's home market. The deal was abandoned in 2005.[14]

In 2009, E.ON and RWE established an equally owned joint venture Horizon Nuclear Power to develop around 6,000 MWe of new nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom by 2025 at the Wylfa and Oldbury sites. However, in March 2012 E.ON and RWE announced they were pulling out of the project due to difficult financial conditions.[17]

In August 2011, the company announced a possible loss of 10,000 of its 85,600 employees due to the German decision to close all the country's nuclear power stations by 2022, instead of by 2036 as the Bundestag had decided on 28 October 2010.[18][19]

In May 2014 the UK energy sector regular Ofgem ordered the company to pay 330,000 of its customers a total sum of £12 million due to poor sales practices the company engaged in between June 2010 and December 2013. At the time it was the largest penalty levied against a UK energy supplier.[20]

In November 2014, E.ON announced to abstain from fossil energy in the future.[21] It transferred its fossil energy businesses into a new company Uniper, which started operating on 1 January 2016.[22][23] E.ON sold a 53% stake in the business through a listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in September 2016.[8] In 2017, it agreed to sell its remaining stake in Uniper to the Finnish power company Fortum.[9] The deal was finalized in June 2018.

In March 2018, it was announced that E.ON will acquire renewable energy utility Innogy from its controlling shareholder RWE. The deal will result in E.ON becoming a pure retail and distribution company. This is achieved through a complex €43 billion asset swap deal between E.ON, Innogy and RWE where E.ON takes over Innogy's retail and distribution business whereas RWE takes over both Innogy's renewable energy generation portfolio as well as E.ON's remaining energy generation assets. In addition, RWE will take a 16.7% stake in E.ON and E.ON will receive a cash payment of €1.5 billion.[9][10]

E.ON Business Services (previously E.ON IT (until 30 September 2013), and is:energy) is the IT service provider of the energy company E.ON. It bundles business services for finance and HR as well as IT under a single roof and employs around 3,800 people. These are located at four legal entities in Germany (EBS GmbH, EBS Berlin GmbH, EBS Hanover GmbH and EBS Regensburg GmbH); plus legal entities in ten further countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and United Kingdom).
[27]

Before the VEBA and VIAG merged to become E.ON, these companies were provided with IT services by synergis GmbH and GEDOS mbH. After the merger in 2001, these two companies became is:energy. The new company was a partnership of E.ON Energie AG (74.78%) and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young AG (25.22%). In 2005 Cap Gemini Ernst & Young relinquished its minority stake to E.ON's regional suppliers. This created is:energy, which as a result of the change of partners became E.ON IS, a direct subsidiary of E.ON. In 2006, E.ON IS extended its product range to include telecommunications services. At the same time, the company's international expansion continued.[citation needed]

Between 1998 and 2014, E.ON spent more than 30 million euros ($41 million) supporting the Museum Kunstpalast, located next to the corporate headquarters in Düsseldorf.[29]

In 2014, E.ON decided to sell Jackson Pollock's Number 5 (Elegant Lady) (1951), a painting the company has owned since 1980, at Christie's auction to keep funding the Museum Kunstpalast.[30] Pollock had swapped it in 1954 with New York gallery owner Martha Jackson for the convertible in which he had a fatal accident two years later. In 1980, Ulrich Hartmann, head of VEBA's corporate board office, pushed for the purchase from art dealer Alfred Schmela. The acquisition was considered the foundation for E.ON's art collection of more than 1,800 works.[29]

E.ON is also sponsor of Brain Bar, a Budapest-based, annually held festival on the future.[31]